Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition (Purple Crayon Books)
Harold turns 50, next year! But he's still creating magical worlds with his purple crayon and footed pajamas!
"One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight."" With that gentle, elegant sentence, and a wild purple scribble, begins Crockett Johnson's classic picture book "Harold and the Purple Crayon," originally published in 1955.
For those who haven't read it (or had it read to them years ago), the story follows Harold, a bald little boy in footed pajamas, as he draws himself in to a series of unexpected adventures. His purple crayon gets him in to, and then out of, scrape after scrape. When in water over his head, he draws a boat. When he falls off a mountain, he draws a hot-air balloon. Harold also creates wonderful things on his moonlit walk, like a forest with just one tree in it, a city full of windows, a picnic with "all nine kinds of pie that Harold liked best."
Unlike most picture books, which are merely short-short-short stories that would work with or without pictures, "Harold and the Purple Crayon" could not exist without them. The book is a love letter to drawing, a masterful demonstration of its magical possibilities. With just two lines that join together at the top of the page, Harold creates a road that recedes in the distance. A wavy line, made when Harold's hand trembles with fear, becomes an ocean that he falls into. A box drawn around the moon turns into a window, and suddenly Harold is no longer outside, but back in his own bedroom.
Johnson's delightful drawings all but eclipse the words, which are simple and elegant in their own right. The language is so pared down, it's almost impossible to excerpt and still convey its beauty, such as how simple phrases like "a terribly frightening dragon," "a nice simple picnic lunch," or "a fine view" could be so perfect.
Upon re-reading (and believe me, if you buy this book for your child, it will be read and re-read and re-re-read), even a few understated puns appear. At the end of the story, for example, Harold "made his bed" and "drew up the covers."
